“If you cut the snake’s head off, the body will die.’”
— Gregg Williams, to his Redskins’ defensive players, circa 2004-2007
- Mike Wise
- Columnist
Gregg Williams’s true nature exposed
One of the most illuminating moments in Gregg Williams’s NFL career of controlled mayhem happened when he was interviewing to become Joe Gibbs’s replacement as head coach of the Washington Redskins in January 2008. From Daniel Snyder’s Potomac mansion, he texted a reporter how great the all-day interview was going, intimating that he expected to be given the job perhaps that day by Snyder and his right-hand man, Vinny Cerrato.
Beyond showing remarkable hubris — and incredible ignorance about a head-coaching job he was never going to get — the anecdote said everything about Williams: He thought more of himself than others thought of him and he believed deeply that the force of his own personality could trump all the black marks and bad-character references against him.
As usual, Gregg Williams was wrong.
Though he was congenial to almost everyone he needed in the media, we used to derisively say in Ashburn that the third “G” in Williams’s first name stood for “genius,” and if you want to find out how great and smart the team’s defensive coordinator was, well, just ask him.
Today when NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s investigative team brought Williams and the New Orleans Saints up on bounty-hunting charges — the same pay-for-pain program he administered with the Redskins from 2004 to 2007, multiple players told The Post on Friday — the third “G” should stand for “goon.”
Or “gutter,” the proper place for warped coaches who push the envelope of an already violent game way too far.
Or “god complex,” which is what several former players said Williams had.
From 2009 to 2011, the Saints’ “program” paid $1,500 for a “knockout” hit and $1,000 if an opposing player was carted off the field, the NFL said. The system worked the same way in both New Orleans and Washington apparently, in which Williams would fine players $500 for being late to practices and meetings before redistributing it. He would contribute some of the money from his own pocket.
Now the St. Louis Rams’ defensive coordinator, Williams is frightened he could cost his new employers part of their future.
Williams apologized Friday for what he called a “pay for performance” program while he was with the Saints, calling it a “terrible mistake” and taking full responsibility for his role in a prepared statement.
Damage control through a public apology is not enough. Goodell needs to suspend Williams for a full season, if not more — take away his livelihood for a while the way he promoted taking other livelihoods away.
And the teams that employed him and knew of his bounty on many of the game’s stars — and knowingly supported it — need to lose draft picks and be reprimanded for terrible misjudgment.
Failure to punish sternly would tell all those players writhing on the ground in agony that they don’t matter, they’re expendable whenever an egomaniacal coordinator believes he’s bigger than the tenets of the game.
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